After dinner and a bath, we all went to bed without any unfortunate or perverted incidents taking place. Given the circumstances, I guessed the other women were showing some self-restraint; for the first time in what felt like forever, I got to take a bath alone. It was nice.
And instead of the usual nighttime antics, Grande simply snuggled in bed with me. Thankfully, her sour mood seemed to vanish. It was all very peaceful.
Besides, while our bedroom—lodgings, really—was in a separate building, it was not exactly soundproof. If we got busy in bed, the others would’ve heard every sound. And lord knows if Aqual caught wind of that, her morning glare would’ve hit absolute zero temperatures. Maybe everyone realized that and quietly agreed that tonight would be a night of rest, not revelry.
Unfortunately, peace didn’t last and we had a bigger problem on our hands.
BOOOOM! RATATATATATATA!
The golem turrets opened fire.
Sure, they were doing their job—automatically engaging any monster that tried to attack us—but large-caliber guns didn’t exactly whisper, making them a massive disturbance for people trying to sleep. Grande had no issue sleeping right through them, but I woke up every time one went off. Shemel and the others stirred once and went back to sleep.
Typical adventurers.
“Master…”
A tremble.
“I-I’m scared…”
The harpies, however, were having a real bad time. One by one, they fluttered into the room and squeezed into bed with Grande and me. Their wings trembled and every new blast of gunfire jolted them awake—and, by extension, me too.
Aqual’s definitely going to let me have it tomorrow, I thought as I drifted in and out of sleep.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You certainly look sleep deprived. How indecent.”
“You’ve got it all wrong. Nothing lewd kept me up.”
Aqual wasted no time serving up insults as soon as she saw me in the morning.
Totally unfair. I hadn’t been up all night fooling around; the golem turrets had simply been too good at their job. If I wanted to avoid losing more sleep, I was going to have to make some adjustments, pronto.
Suppressors, maybe? Or a barrel redesign? Either way, they were overkill as far as firepower went, so trimming a bit of range and output in exchange for peace and quiet sounded like a good trade-off.
That said… Would a suppressor alone really help all that much? Since these things were already overpowered, maybe I could just make the entire gun a giant suppressor. A little ridiculous, but worth considering.
“All right, I gotta ask,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “How do you look so well rested after that racket last night?”
“I had plenty of water. I used spirit magic to cover our lodgings with a water membrane.”
I gave an exaggerated bow. “You are quite wise, Lady Aqual.”
She frowned at my overly polite tone, but I wasn’t wrong. The base had an infinite water source built in, and she’d used it to create a barrier that dampened the sound. Not gonna lie, it was a really smart way of handling this and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. It seemed a little bit overboard, but while I’d spent the night being jolted awake every few minutes, she basically slept inside a soundproof bubble. I couldn’t even be mad—just impressed.
“So do you plan on sleeping all day now?” she asked.
“Nah. I’m not particularly well rested, but I’ll live.”
Once I washed up and got some food in me, I’d be able to think straight.
The harpies were short sleepers by nature, and Grande and the ogre girls had snored right through the gunfire, so I was the only one suffering from sleep deprivation.
“All right, then,” Aqual said, folding her arms. “I plan on getting a good look at how you work today. I have nothing else to do, after all.”
“Then I’d better make sure to put on a good show,” I said, attempting to look hyped.
Aqual, on the other hand, looked anything but. Her expression said, “Why would anyone need to impress me?”
Yeah, still a long way to go before I won her over.
“Okay, breakfast time,” I said, rummaging through my supplies. “Do you prefer a lighter or heavier meal? If you’re cool with the latter, I’ve got wieners or bacon.”
“I’m not a fan of salty meats in the morning.”
“Light it is, then.”
At least she was talking to me without glaring holes through my skull. Baby steps.